


Ghost in the Machine

by fadedink



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Artificial Intelligence, Chuck Lives, Gen, The Drift (Pacific Rim)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 21:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadedink/pseuds/fadedink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chuck Hansen's first Drift is a disaster. But what Tendo discovers several days later shocks the entire Shatterdome.  Soon enough, they discover that you don't necessarily need a body to co-pilot a Jaeger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sydney

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to the Pacific Rim Reverse Big Bang, based on [this beautiful art](http://i.imgur.com/I14RZMQ.jpg) by [-lokeloke-](http://-lokeloke-.tumblr.com).
> 
> Now just a few quick things to keep in mind. The timeline in this fic doesn't match the timeline in the film (which is hinky anyway). Also, certain events don't happen. Others do, but with different outcomes and different people involved. Things like this happen when you're writing an AU.
> 
> All the love EVER to [Brenda](http://azewewish.livejournal.com) for the fantastic beta work on this. My first draft was a far different (and inferior) creature. I think it went through 5 drafts before it became what you see here. And while I bitched about it pretty much incessantly (and had more than one anxiety attack because I loathe editing with a passion), I made 95% of the changes she wanted, listened to what she said, and tried to make it better. Hopefully you agree.

Part I: November – December 2019

 

_< <Link with LOCCENT initialized.>>_

_< <R-HHAN_832.84-G logged in.>>_

_< <R-CHAN_512.66-D logged in.>>_

_< <Prepare for CONN-POD drop.>>_

"Really?" Chuck screwed up his face as he listened to the AI while the techs finished locking him into the pilot motion rig. "GLaDOS? Who thought _that_ was a bloody good idea?"

Herc huffed out a quiet laugh that was echoed by Tendo's voice in Chuck's ear. "Focus, gentlemen."

Focus, hell. Chuck had played Portal – mastered the game, even – and he knew _all_ about GLaDOS and its homicidal and megalomaniacal tendencies.

"Do they not know that crazy AI wants to destroy humanity?" Chuck's annoyance with the computer's voice allowed him to ignore the way his stomach rolled. He had graduated top of his class at the Jaeger Academy, highest scores ever recorded, and he could do this. Nerves were for people who washed out of Ranger training.

"They know, kiddo," Tendo said. "Consider it Dr. Lightcap's reminder that we're fighting _for_ humanity."

"Because the bloody big alien sea monsters aren't enough of a reminder?"

"Chuck," Herc said, but Chuck could tell he wanted to laugh. "Come on, focus. First drifts are hard enough."

"Whatever, old man."

Then the Conn-Pod dropped. And it was _nothing_ like the simulations at the Academy.

Chuck jerked in his harness, then plummeted so fast he could swear his stomach was trying to relocate somewhere near his sinuses. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. It was made even less pleasant by the way his body swayed in the motion rig.

"Oh, fuck me."

"Language, Chuck," Herc said absently.

When the drop ended, it did so with a gentle glide. Chuck swallowed several times and listened to the Conn-Pod lock into place.

_< <Initializing all systems.>>_

_< <Arbiter Tac-Conn 12 system online.>>_

_< <Command module configured to 100%.>>_

_< <XIG Supercell Chamber charging to 100%.>>_

_< <WMB2x90 AKM Chest Launcher engaged.>>_

_< <Communications engaged.>>_

_< <Striker Eureka now online.>>_

_< <Now recording test run #001-HHAN-CHAN. Please initiate neural handshake.>>_

"Doing okay in there, kiddo?" Tendo asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." Chuck took a few deep breaths to quell the urge to vomit, clenched his fists, then forced himself to relax. He could do this. Nothing to it.

"Okay, then, let's get this show on the road. Herc?"

"Ready when you are." Herc looked over at Chuck and offered a small smile. "Just let it flow, okay? Don't fight it."

"And don't chase Thumper," Tendo added.

Chuck's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Thumper?"

"RABITs. Don't chase 'em."

"I know." It was one of the first things they taught cadets at the Academy. Memories – or Random Access Brain Impulse Triggers – could ruin a Drift faster than anything else, and it was stressed over and over to let them go by and not latch on to any of them.

Chuck had never failed a Drift simulation.

"Relax, gentlemen, and enjoy the ride. Initializing neural handshake in three, two, one..."

Chuck was sucked into the blue of the Drift. Energy crackled over him. The smell of burning ozone filled his lungs.

"Looking good, looking good," Tendo said. "Right hemisphere calibrated. Left hemisphere calibr— Chuck, can you hear me? Kiddo, talk to me, what's going on in there?"

"Tendo, we're not synching," Herc said, sounding far away.

Chuck opened his mouth.

"We're losing it," Tendo said. "Disengage, Rangers, it's not working –"

Someone screamed.

*

"Chuck? _Chuck_?"

"What the hell happened?"

" _Chuck_!"

"Med team to Striker Eureka, stat!"

"Mr. Choi, report!"

"Sir, I don't know! The handshake, it just, Chuck was—"

"He didn't chase the RABIT, I'd've known."

"Ranger Hansen, let the medical team do their work."

"Get yer goddamn hands off me! My son—"

"Sir, we're going to take care of your son. But we need you to let go of him now."

" _Chuck_!"

*

"How's he doing?"

Herc looked up as Tendo entered the hospital room. "Still no change."

Tendo's mouth turned down and he shook his head. "Damn. I'd hoped..." He trailed off and raked a hand through his hair. "What'd the docs say?"

"There's nothing physically wrong with him." Herc took a breath, let it out slowly, and refocused on the bed and the still form of Chuck lying there, hooked up to all those machines. "All his vitals are good, strong even, but he's not responding to anything."

"Coma?" Tendo rubbed his mouth when Herc nodded. "His brain –"

"Is fine," Herc snapped, then took another breath. He nodded to the small machine by Chuck's bed where a spiked graph from the electrodes fastened to Chuck's skull was steadily scrolling. "No swelling and there's a lot of activity. They don't _know_."

He reached out to curl his fingers around Chuck's, silently cursing himself for ever agreeing to let Chuck enter the Academy, for agreeing to the Drift compatibility test, for agreeing to step into a Conn-Pod with his sixteen year old son. "What the hell happened, Tendo?"

"I don't know," Tendo replied quietly, stepping closer to look down at Chuck. "I've got the entire J-Tech branch working on it and the Marshal's cancelled leave for everyone until we figure it out. We're still studying all the data and telemetry. Herc..."

Herc's eyes shifted, but he kept his hand snug around Chuck's fingers. His son might not be awake, but somewhere deep down, he'd know Herc was there.

"We're going to figure out what caused this." Tendo's hand came to rest on Herc's shoulder, patting once before falling away. "If I have to crawl into Striker's Conn-Pod and rip it apart myself. We'll fix it."

"Maybe." Herc nodded and tried to believe Tendo's words. He couldn't.

*

Tendo sat down at his station and called up all the reports on the disastrous Drift test from the previous week. They'd run every diagnostic they could, and each test said the same thing – that the Jaeger, the operating system, and the pilot motion rigs were operating flawlessly.

This morning, a team was inside Striker Eureka's Conn-Pod, running more tests even though no one expected different results. No matter what they did, no one was unable to explain what had happened.

And Pentecost was breathing down his neck.

Striker Eureka's designer and software programmer had arrived the previous night. Their assessment?

Wipe the Jaeger clean and reload the software before running extensive diagnostics to make sure it didn't happen again. Never mind that they needed to know _what_ had happened and _why_ , or they'd possibly end up with more Rangers in Medical alongside Chuck.

Coffee in one hand, eyes on the reports lying beside the keyboard, Tendo logged into the system.

When it dinged, he finally looked at the monitor.

_**< <User <J-TCHO_695.07-P> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] not recognized. Continue y/n?>>** _

"What the hell?" Tendo tried again, paying close attention to what his fingers were typing, even though he'd typed the exact same thing every morning in Shatterdomes all around the Pacific for the last five years. He received the same error message.

Rolling back from the monitor, he glared around the room at all the techs studiously bent over their tasks. "Okay, who's the wise guy?"

"Sir?"

"Who changed my login?"

Blank looks and confusion greeted him. "Sir, the only person who can change your login is you. And Marshal Pentecost."

Tendo knew that. It didn't stop him from giving them all another steady look before he turned back to his monitor. He tried again.

_**< <User <J-TCHO_695.07-P> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] not recognized. Continue as user <Elvis> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] y/n?>>** _

"What the actual fuck?" Only one person called him 'Elvis' and that person... With fingers that were not at all steady, Tendo reached forward and typed in _**< <Y>>**_.

And held his breath while trying to convince himself that he wasn't crazy.

_**< <User <Elvis> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] logged in. About bloody time, you stupid wanker.>>** _

*

"Sir, we have a problem."

"I'm aware of that, Mr. Choi."

"Uh, no, sir, I don't think you understand. You need –"

"What I _need_ are answers. Do you have them?"

"No, sir, but we have a bigger problem."

"Mr. Choi, what could _possibly_ be worse than a sixteen year old boy in a coma?"

"That same sixteen year old boy _inside_ of our operating system and now in charge of it, sir."

"What did you say?"

"He's in the mainframe, sir."

"That is not possible, Mr. Choi."

"Sir... Could you please just come down to LOCCENT?"

*

Tendo watched the Marshal stalk into the room and the tension in the room practically vibrated off the chart. Coming out of his seat, Tendo stood at attention. "Sir."

"Alright, Mr. Choi, I'm here." Stacker clasped his hands behind his back and looked around. The techs on duty were blatant in their efforts not to meet his eyes. "Now will you please explain to me why I shouldn't order you to Medical for a full psych battery?"

"Sir." Tendo swallowed before gesturing at the monitor behind him. "Could you, uh, try to log in?"

"Mr. Choi –"

"Please, sir, just... just humor me."

Stacker's expression never changed, but Tendo saw several people duck lower behind their own monitors. It felt like the entire room exhaled when Stacker sat down at the terminal and started typing without saying another word.

_**< <User <M-MPEN_970.89-Q> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] not recognized.>>** _

Stacker stared at the screen for a long moment. Tendo waited, fists clenched tight as Stacker slowly started to type in his login once more.

_**< <User <M-MPEN_970.89-Q>> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] not recognized. Continue as user <StacksIsWhacks> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] y/n?>>** _

Stacker stood up so abruptly that the chair fell over and half the room jumped. "Who," he said, voice shaking, "is responsible for this?"

"Chuck is, sir," Tendo said quietly, fighting the urge to fidget when Stacker's gaze landed on him.

"That is _impossible_. Ranger Hansen is in –"

"The mainframe, sir. I tried to tell you –"

"Mr. Choi!" Stacker's voice thundered through the room. There were several squeaks, a few thumps, and at least one dropped coffee cup. Tendo didn't turn to verify the number of shattered mugs. "Charles Hansen has been in a coma for six _days_. He is _not_ in this Shatterdome's mainframe."

"Sir..." Tendo lifted his chin. He was right. Every single tech in LOCCENT knew it. They'd all crowded around him as he'd carried on the bizarre conversation with the computer system. "The only person with the authority to change your login is _you_. No one else can do that. I can show you the security logs if you like, sir. The logins weren't _changed_. They just stopped working."

"Get Hercules Hansen up here now."

"He won't leave Chuck alone, sir."

"Send Mako to sit with him."

Fifteen minutes later, Herc sat in the newly righted chair. He flashed Stacker a sullen look. "Right then, why the hell am I up here?"

"Log in to the system," Stacker said, once more the picture of perfect calm.

"What?" Herc looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "Look, _Marshal_ , I've got better things to do –"

"Ranger Hansen, log in to the system. Now."

Tendo had a moment to wonder if he might pass out from lack of oxygen as he found himself holding his breath again. Then, muttering, Herc spun the chair around and started typing, his fingers stabbing at the keys.

_**< <User <R-HHAN_832.84-G> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] not recognized.>>** _

Herc frowned and leaned closer to the screen. "The bloody hell?"

Tendo and Stacker shared a look.

"Try it again, Herc," Stacker said, his voice softer now. For a long moment, Herc just looked over his shoulder at Stacker before he shrugged.

_**< <User <R-HHAN_832.84-G> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] not recognized. Continue as user <Dad> [<SYD-LOCCENT>], y/n?>>** _

Tendo caught Herc's arm as he violently flailed away from the monitor. The chair crashed to the floor as the keyboard rattled from Herc's thighs hitting the edge of the desk when he bolted. "What the fuck, Stacker?" Herc snarled, rounding on Stacker before Tendo could stop him. "That's not fucking funny!"

"He didn't do it." Tendo put himself between the two men. "Herc, listen to me. The Marshal didn't do it!"

"Then who the fuck did?"

"We think Chuck did."

Herc jerked back like he'd been slapped. The look he gave Tendo was that of a wounded animal. "That... That's _really_ not fucking funny."

Tendo just leaned around him and typed in _**< <Y>>**_ before gesturing for Herc to look at the screen.

_**< <User <Dad> [<SYD-LOCCENT>] logged in.>>** _

Herc crossed his arms over his chest and just looked at the monitor. "Who changed it, Tendo?"

Before Tendo could answer, the screen flashed and words started to appear. The silence in the room was deafening, so much so that Tendo could hear his own heartbeat thundering in his ears.

_**< <I did. Dad, you gotta help me. Get me out of here.>>** _

Herc went pale as he collapsed onto the chair.

*

"Herc, calm down –"

"Fuck you, I will _not_ calm down!"

"We think Chuck's in the mainframe. His... I don't know, his awareness? His consciousness?"

"That's impossible."

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but. Chuck, whatever we're going to call it – answered questions when I asked them. And I asked a _lot_ of questions before I called the Marshal in!"

"What's the point of –"

"They were answers only Chuck would know! And then... Then I started getting responses when I talked out loud."

"How the hell did this happen?"

"That's what we're going to find out."

*

Herc didn't look up when the door to Chuck's room opened. He just sat there and held Chuck's hand, eyes focused on his son's face. If will alone could get Chuck to wake up, then Herc had enough will power for an army.

"Herc," Stacker said, voice low, maintaining his position by the door. "The Breach alarm went off five minutes ago."

"Doesn't concern me."

"You're a Ranger."

"I'm a _father_ first," Herc growled. "And my place is right here. I lost my _wife_ , because I couldn't be there for both of them. I'm not going to walk away when my son needs me."

"We need you out there. We're deploying Gipsy Danger and Horizon Brave, but we need a third Jaeger."

"Yeah, well, I'm not getting back inside Striker Eureka," Herc said as he turned his gaze back to Chuck. _Wake up, kid, c'mon, just open your eyes._ "And I reckon I couldn't even I wanted to. Got no co-pilot."

"Lucky Seven is ready to go," Stacker said. He took a few steps closer, stopping on the other side of the bed. "And we've got the police looking for Scott –"

"No." Herc came out of his chair as an icy fist clamped around his heart. "My brother wanted out, and I gave it to him. You're not dragging him back into this."

Stacker just looked at him, head tilted, like Herc had answered an unspoken question. And maybe Herc had, but he'd go to his grave standing by the official story. Then Stacker inclined his head. "We have an entire group –"

A low ding from the monitor in the corner interrupted them, and Stacker and Herc turned to look at it.

Nothing displayed except a screen of snow, accompanied by a low hiss of static. The static quickly resolved itself and the AI spoke.

_< <Dad doesn't need a co-pilot. He's already got one.>>_

"Chuck," Herc whispered, turning back to the bed. The fragile hope blooming in his chest died when he saw that Chuck's eyes were still closed. But that was definitely Chuck's voice.

_< <Do you have any idea how fucking weird it is to see your own body like this?>>_

"Language, Chuck," Herc said absently, eyes still on Chuck's form as it started to blur.

"Chuck," Stacker said, "what did you mean by your father has a co-pilot?"

_< <He's got me. Reckon he doesn't need another one.>>_

"I'm going to assume that you're fully aware of your situation, Mr. Hansen. And you cannot pilot a Jaeger like this."

_< <Beg pardon, Marshal, but there isn't a bloody system in this Shatterdome I can't access. Including the Jaegers.>>_

"That doesn't negate the fact that you need _two_ pilots to share the neural load of the connection."

"Marshal –" Tendo broke off as he stuck his head in the door and looked at them.

_< <Elvis, c'mon in, join the bloody party.>>_

"Chuck?" Tendo's face went white. His eyes darted to the bed and Herc. "Uh –"

_< <Marshal, the whole point behind the Drift is to connect the pilots' minds so they can pilot the Jaeger. Nothing says you need two bodies. Bet I can still Drift with my dad just fine.>>_

When Herc looked up, Tendo's eyes were wide. Then he nodded slowly. "It's..." He gave the monitor a hard look. "He's not _entirely_ wrong, _if_ you believe Dr. Lightcap. But it's just a theory."

_< <So we gonna do this, or what?>>_

*

"Tendo, is it true?"

"I don't know, Herc. No one knows. It just –"

"Mr. Choi, explain."

"Okay, okay, look. It's like this. Dr. Lightcap has always theorized – with pretty good reason if you've studied J-Tech in-depth – that only _one_ body is actually needed to _move_ the Jaegers. The neural bridge between the two minds is the important thing."

"Bloody fucking English, please."

"Herc, shut up. Yelling will not solve anything at this point. Tendo, continue."

"Simply put, as long as you have two minds in the Drift, you only need one body to do the actual fighting. Which... we already have proof of that from Tokyo."

"Tamsin was unconscious and out of the Drift."

"Yes, sir, but you still managed to pilot by yourself in there for several hours. What Chuck is suggesting... Well, it's basically the same thing, only he's implying that, that his consciousness is _inside_ the mainframe and if he actually can access any of the systems like he says – then it just might work."

"And just how do we know for sure? I will not contemplate sending a Ranger out on a solo run without hard proof."

"We do the only thing we can, sir. We initiate a neural handshake between Herc and whichever Jaeger Chuck, uh, decides to take over for this."

"Herc, I can't ask you –"

"I'm fucking volunteering."

*

"Chuck?" Herc stood straight and shrugged to settle the circuitry suit more comfortably around his shoulders and chest. Techs moved around him. "You there?"

_< <I'm here, Dad.>>_

"Is this gonna work?"

_< <It'll work.>>_

"Sound pretty confident there, kid."

_< <I learned it from you.>>_

Herc's mouth, opened to reply, closed with an audible snap as Stacker strode into the room. "Ranger Hansen? Not you, Herc."

_< <Sir?>>_

"I am allowing this to proceed only because Mr. Choi assures me that he will initiate the failsafe the _second_ it looks as if your father is in distress. Do you understand?"

_< <Yes, sir.>>_

"You will make no attempts to override that failsafe, Ranger, is _that_ understood?"

_< <Yes, sir. If my dad can't handle it, I'll initiate the failsafe myself, sir.>>_

Stacker nodded, his eyes on Herc's. Herc couldn't decipher his expression. "This... This _test_ will be conducted in Lucky Seven. If – and that is a _very_ big 'if', Rangers – if it proves successful, the Jumphawks will transport Lucky to the drop point."

_< <I want Striker Eureka. Sir.>>_

"That is not an option, Mr. Hansen." The way the muscles of his arms bunched beneath his uniform jacket told Herc that Stacker's fists were clenched behind his back. "They're still running diagnostics on her systems in an effort to figure out exactly what happened to you. It will be Lucky Seven, or I will order the techs to stop what they're doing, which means your father will not be suited up, and then we'll see if you're able to pilot a Jaeger solo and without a body."

_< <Sir – >>_

"Do I make myself clear?"

_< <Yes, sir.>>_

Stacker left the room without another word. Herc slowly released his breath, only then aware that he'd been holding it. No wonder he felt light-headed. The techs bustled around him in silence, locking the pieces of his body armor into place. "Chuck, don't push it, okay? We're lucky the Marshal's even allowing us to attempt this."

_< <We can do this. I'd just feel better about it in Striker. I don't know Lucky's systems.>>_

"Then I suggest you go learn them, boy," Herc growled as he tried to drop into his pre-fight headspace. "You've got about twenty minutes before they get me locked into the rig."

Twenty-two minutes later, the door to Lucky Seven's Conn-Pod closed behind the last tech, and Herc was left alone. His nerves jumped like water droplets in a hot skillet. Counting to ten silently, he forced himself to focus.

"How we doing in there, Herc?"

"Doing good, Tendo."

"Chuck? You ready?"

_< <Yeah, I'm ready. Let's do this.>>_

Herc couldn't help the smile that formed. The famous Hansen stubborn streak had manifested in Chuck early, and his confidence had been unshakeable from the time he'd been a little tyke. It was a large part of why the kid had done so well at the Academy.

"Alright then, Chuck, I need you both logged in."

_< <Link with LOCCENT is initialized, me and Dad are both logged in, let's drop.>>_

"We're going to have to talk about that, you know," Tendo said, clearly amused. "We need those user names changed back to –"

_< <Not gonna happen. Deal with it, Elvis.>>_

"We'll see," was all Tendo said. Herc focused on the spot right in front of his face, refusing to look to his left. "Dropping Conn-Pod now."

There was a loud _thunk_ as the locks disengaged, followed by the seconds of freefall that were still enough to make a cold sweat break out down Herc's back. Then the mechanism slowed and he listened to the motors whirring as Lucky Seven's head joined with her body.

"Still good in there?"

"Fuck, Tendo, I'm _good_ , can we just get this bloody show on the road already?"

_< <And you lecture me about my language?>>_

"Chuck."

"Gentlemen, if we could proceed," Tendo said, sounding slightly strangled. "Chuck, kiddo, if you've truly got control of those systems, it's your show now."

_< <About bloody time. Oi, here we go. Initializing all systems and bringing the Blue Spark 3 system online. Command module's a go. Arc-9 Reactor all charged up. V-R3 Energy Caster and communications engaged. Lucky Seven's now ready to rock and roll.>>_

Herc shook out his hands in an effort to loosen tense muscles.

"Show time, Rangers," he said. "Remember, at the first sign of distress, we're shutting it down, so just relax and let it happen. Herc, we've got Medical here monitoring your vitals."

"Understood."

"Initiating neural handshake in three, two, one..."

The Drift washed over Herc. He let it play out, seeing the images pass in front of him, through him, but he refused to latch onto to any single moment. Even the ones that he knew weren't his – the ones of the Shatterdome from perspectives he'd never been able to achieve, images slightly pixilated around the edges with the colors not quite right – but Herc couldn't help wondering if those were Chuck's from his time inside the complex's systems.

Then, without warning or fanfare, reality coalesced around Herc again.

"Looking good so far," Tendo said. "How're you feeling?"

"I'm –" Herc's voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. "I feel good. Normal."

"Good, good."

Herc watched the displays in front of him. "Right hemisphere calibrated, Tendo."

"Good job. Now, just stay relaxed, and let's see if we can get the rest of this to line up smoothly. Chuck?"

There was no response. Herc felt something clench tight around his chest. Fuck, why'd he agree to this? The silence stretched out and grew thicker with each passing second. Herc started to count silently and reached ninety before anything happened.

_< <Left hemisphere calibrated.>>_

"Jesus Christ, kid," Tendo said as Herc gasped harshly. "Give me a heart attack, why don't you? You okay?"

_< <Fantastic, if you consider my mind's in a bloody massive robot while my body's on the other side of the Shatterdome in the Med bay.>>_

At that, Herc closed his eyes and smiled. That... Now _that_ sounded like Chuck. Snarky and stubborn to his core.

"Nice to see some things haven't changed," Tendo muttered. "Okay, let's just do a few basic moves –"

Fuck that. Herc squared his shoulders, felt Chuck's mind settle quietly against his. "Tendo, didn't you say there's a kaiju in the water?"

"Yeah, heading for Manila, why –" A sharp, indrawn breath came through the comm link. "Herc, no. We don't –"

"We ain't gonna kick its arse doing pirouettes and katas in here," Herc said. "Get the Jumphawks ready."

"Herc –"

_< <Neural handshake's at 100% and holding, Dad.>>_

"Ready for your first kaiju, Chuck?"

_< <Fuck yeah.>>_

It was an indication of just how relieved Herc was that Chuck was still there in the mainframe that he didn't mention Chuck's language. Instead, he just started to walk down Scramble Alley.

Five hours later, they crouched in front of Horizon Brave's disabled body as Gipsy Danger put two plasma cannon bolts into Kanahebi's head. Lucky Seven was battered, deep gashes scoring her torso and Conn-Pod and one arm hanging nearly useless at her side, and Herc knew it would be her last battle, but Chuck's whoop of victory was the sweetest sound Herc had ever heard.


	2. Hong Kong

Part II: December 2024 – January 2025

 

_< <Why are we doing this again? Why is it a good idea to move everyone to Hong Kong and close all the Shatterdomes?>>_

"Because the flashy suits and ties would rather trust a wall," Herc said, right hand a tight fist behind his back. "You already know this, Chuck."

_< <Doesn't mean I have to agree with it. Or like it.>>_

"None of us like it."

His gaze roamed over Chuck's body, so quiet and unmoving. Even knowing Chuck watched him through the complex-wide camera system (and fuck, the boy had become an ace at maneuvering through the systems and circuits until he had the entire Shatterdome under his control – it made the Sydney LOCCENT crew more than a little mental at times), Herc still stepped forward and covered Chuck's hand with his.

"They do your therapy this morning?"

_< <Yeah, but I still don't see why we keep doing it. It's been five years.>>_

"I know that," Herc snapped before taking a deep breath. "I know that, Chuck. But you're going to wake up, and the last thing you want is another five years spent in physical therapy just so you can wipe your own arse, let alone walk. This way..."

_< <I know, Dad.>>_

If a computer voice could sound contrite and apologetic, Chuck's did. Herc just nodded as the nurses came in to start preparing Chuck for the flight to Hong Kong. Taller now than he'd been during that first disastrous Drift, and bulked out, thanks to the physical therapy regimen, he looked as if he'd fallen into the coma just weeks ago instead of years.

"Alright, the laptop's hooked up, so you can clear out of the 'Dome system and we can get going. You ready?"

_< <Do I have a choice?>>_

"You can always stay here," Herc said as he fought to hide his smile. "Be pretty boring, though, what with everyone else heading out. And me and Striker'll be up in Hong Kong, so you'll be stuck inside."

_< <Dad? Go fuck yourself. I hate the laptop.>>_

"I know you do, son," Herc laughed. "But we'll have you back in a 'Dome soon enough, and you'll have all that RAM at your fingertips again."

_< <Don't drop the laptop this time.>>_

" _One time_ , and you're never gonna let me forget it."

*

Juggling two cups of coffee and a bagel, Tendo stepped into LOCCENT. One look at his monitor, already on and displaying data, told him that Chuck had settled into Hong Kong with no issues.

"Morning, kiddo," he said, dropping into his seat. "How're we doing?"

_< <Bored out of my bloody mind.>>_

That was Chuck-speak for 'all quiet on the Western front'. Tendo grinned. Then he looked at his monitor and groaned. "Seriously, Chuck? I thought we'd settled this last time I was in Sydney."

_< <Bored, Elvis. What part of that don't you get?>>_

"So watching bad Jaeger pilot porn is your solution? Can't you be more mature?"

_< <I'm emotionally stunted.>>_

"And stop reading your damn psyche profile."

_< <Alas, the chemicals responsible for my maturity are sautéing in my body, from which I am sadly separated these last five years.>>_

Tendo tried not to laugh, but it was hard. He just managed to hang on to his control, well aware that Chuck had 'eyes' everywhere. "You grew out of puberty a few years ago. I doubt there are any chemicals still sautéing in there."

_< <There could be. We're talking about a lot of built up spunk here.>>_

Thank God that the LOCCENT was mostly deserted that early. And that the Marshal hadn't returned from the States yet. Tendo refused to think of his reaction to Chuck's totally inappropriate comments. "I see the time spent in your dad's laptop did nothing to curb your sass," he said as he studied the downloads on his monitor. "And couldn't you find something with more creative titles?"

_< <Mate, I take what I can get. Still looking for the one that's supposed to have a dead ringer for Raleigh Becket.>>_

"Okay, that's just TMI," Tendo laughed. "Come on, clear this out of here. You know if the Marshal finds out, he'll make me scrub the systems again.

_< <You're no fun.>>_

"Chuck," Tendo said, trying (and failing, he was sure) to sound stern. "Come on."

_**< <Abort active download of file ANALDANGER.uv>>** _

_**< <Abort active download of file CUMZONETYPHOON.uv>>** _

_**< <Abort active download of file ROMEOBLEW.uv>>** _

_**< <Abort active download of file LUCKYSEVENINCHES.uv>>** _

"I take it 'Anal Danger' didn't have the Becket look-a-like?" Tendo asked before he could stop himself.

_< <Dunno. Someone made me abort the download before I could watch it.>>_

Tendo ignored the jab and leaned forward, looked at the single still active command that was accompanied by a countdown clock, and tapped his screen. "Chuck, what's this?"

_< <What's what?>>_

Taking a slow sip of his coffee, Tendo looked up at the camera over his head. There was a long moment of silence.

_< <Fine.>>_

_**< <Abort WAKE UP SHATTERDOME protocol.>>** _

"Do I want to know?"

_< <Probably not.>>_

He knew he'd regret it, but — "What's the 'Wake Up Shatterdome' protocol?"

_< <AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" set to maximum volume.>>_

Tendo choked on his bite of bagel. "Do you _want_ the entire 'Dome to kill you?"

_< <Sydney loved it.>>_

"That's because you're all a bunch of freaks," Tendo muttered.

*

Herc hated unpacking almost as much as he did packing. And even though it was just a few changes of clothes, his toiletries, old photos, and mementos, it was still a process. Grumbling to himself (knowing that Chuck was listening and silently laughing), he pulled out another shirt and reached for a hanger.

"Go on and say what—" He broke off as the Breach Alert sounded, klaxons wailing through the Shatterdome. The screens inside the room lit up, but Herc looked directly into the camera mounted on the wall. "Chuck, report."

_< <The Breach just opened. Signature is a Category IV, ninety meters, 2,630 tons. It's big, but it's not moving too fast. Code name Mutavore.>>_

"Where's it heading?"

_< <Telemetry puts it on a direct course for Sydney.>>_

"Not on my watch," Herc snarled, grabbing his jacket as he headed for the drivesuit room. "Who've we got?"

_< <We're scrambling Cherno Alpha and Echo Saber to the Miracle Mile right now. Striker is to provide back-up, nothing more.>>_

"Like bloody hell we will. You ready for your last fight as an official PPDC Ranger?"

_< <I hoped you'd say that. The techs have your suit ready. Striker and I will be ready when you get there.>>_

*

_Echo Saber is down. I repeat, Echo Saber is down. The kaiju bashed in the Conn-Pod like it was a tin can. No way they survived that._

_Cherno Alpha, move in to engage and watch out for those claws. Those things are deadly._

Furious at the loss of another Jaeger and her team, Herc bit his tongue as he watched the displays in Striker's Conn-Pod. The Russian team appeared to handle whatever the kaiju threw at them, but then Herc noticed that they kept backing up. As he watched, his anger twisting in the Drift with Chuck's, Cherno battled Mutavore up to and _through_ the Wall.

_< <Gee, I'm glad to know the Wall is so sturdy. I feel safer already, don't you, Dad?>>_

Herc snorted out a laugh. "Loads safer." 

Just then, Mutavore landed a blow that sent Cherno to her knees. The angry yells from the Kaidanovskys echoed through the comm.

_< <We can't just stand here and watch them die!>>_

"Screw this, LOCCENT, we're moving in," Herc snarled. Damned if he was going to stand by and watch another team die. "Come on, let's get this bastard."

_< <Hang on, Cherno, we're coming for you!>>_

Moving fast, Striker Eureka hit the kaiju with everything they had. Herc reared back for another blow, sting-blades snapping into place as he swung.

_< <Take that, you ugly bastard!>>_

They traded punches through the streets of downtown Sydney. Blue blood flew with each strike, and Herc grunted with the force of each impact against Striker's frame. But when Mutavore opened its mouth to roar at them (and just watching that gave Herc a sense of vertigo, because the fucker's eyes were _below_ its mouth), Herc saw their opening. "Chuck, engage AKMs now!"

_< <On it.>>_

Standing up straight, Herc pulled his shoulders back, feeling Striker's chest plates slide open so they could fire the missiles. Before they could launch, Mutavore turned, roared again, and leaped at them.

The vicious impact sent Striker reeling back into a building. Before the stabilizers could kick in and keep the Jaeger on her feet, Mutavore came at them again. There was no time for anything more than a stream of curses (from Herc _and_ Chuck) before Mutavore was on them. This time, the blow slammed Herc sideways in the motion rig. His body twisted in ways that nature had never intended, muscles screaming in agony as he fought to stay upright because going down meant their deaths.

Another blow landed and he heard a sickening crack just below his right ear. Years before Chuck was born, Herc had played rugby in school, and he'd broken his collarbone during a game. This was the same exact pain.

They took another blow before Cherno could intervene.

As the battle started to move away from them, Herc cursed and pulled himself to his feet and considered his options for continuing the fight. He didn't have many. So he grabbed a flare gun. Time to do something really stupid.

*

"So much for your big, damn plan," Herc said. He sat on the edge of the hospital bed, glaring at Stacker each time he paced past the nurse adjusting the sling holding Herc's right arm.

"Perhaps not," Stacker replied, all unflappable calm.

It made Herc want to punch him. "Perhaps not?" he asked instead. "Stacker, y'got three Jaegers – and Striker's still got to be repaired – and only enough crews to pilot two of 'em. Or did you miss the fact that I'm out of the fight?"

He gestured towards the sling, but all Stacker did was look at him. Damn Poms and their stiff upper lip bullshit.

"Chuck can still pilot."

Herc laughed. He couldn't help himself. "Not without his body, he can't. Not without a co-pilot. Face it, Striker's out of the mix. You're down to two Jaegers."

"Not necessarily."

"There's no one to pilot with him."

"There's someone else who's compatible with Chuck."

"Who?" It took a few seconds, but when it hit him, his eyes went wide. "No. No fucking way. I'm not asking Scott to do this, and neither are you. He's _out_ , and –"

"Not Scott."

The quiet, calm response stopped the flow of words. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure out just what was going through Stacker's head.

"There's someone else. I just have to find him. Relax, Hercules. I have this under control."

With those words, Stacker nodded and walked away, leaving Herc to wonder just what the hell was Stacker was planning. Whatever it was, something told him that Chuck wasn't going to like it.

*

_< <Tendo? Tendo!>>_

"If you're trying to whisper, kiddo, you're doing a bad job of it," Tendo grumbled as he rolled to his left and pulled the covers over his head.

_< <Tendo, wake up!>>_

"No." Keeping his eyes closed, Tendo pulled the blanket even higher. "I'm not waking up for anything short of a Breach opening. And I don't hear any alarms."

_< <I saw the Marshal's calendar.>>_

Not for anything short of a Breach opening – except that. Tendo pushed the covers away from his face and looked at the ceiling. Thank God Chuck hadn't decided to turn on the lights this time. "Why did you do that?"

_< <Because he hasn't checked in and no one would tell me where he is.>>_

"Did anyone bother telling you that you're a nosy little bastard?"

_< <Yeah, but that's not the point. Tendo, why is the Marshal in Alaska?>>_

"The Academy –"

_< <Horse shite, mate. The Academy's been closed for months, and we both know it. The Icebox shut down at the same time.>>_

"How's your dad?"

_< <He's fine.>>_

Tendo was surprised that Chuck had allowed the change of subject, but he kept it to himself. "That's a good thing."

_< <I know. But damn it, Elvis, Striker's out of commission with just me, and they can't do this with just Cherno and Crimson. Now what the hell is going on? Why is Pentecost in Alaska?>>_

With a sigh (and a sinking feeling), Tendo sat up and rubbed his face. "He's trying to find Raleigh Becket. Seems the two of you are Drift compatible."

Chuck didn't reply. In fact, he didn't reply for so long that Tendo started to worry. He swung his feet off his bunk and rubbed his face again before reaching to flip on the small lamp. "Chuck?"

_< <I see.>>_

"C'mon, kiddo, talk to me." Tendo waited. And waited. And waited. "Chuck?"

There was no answer.

*

"Sorry to hear about your brother. He was a good man."

Raleigh shook Herc's extended hand. "Thank you, sir."

"Yeah, nah, mate, just Herc now." His wink pulled a small smile from Raleigh. "No official ranks anymore, no matter what Stacker says."

Raleigh made a mental note to remember that. No doubt he'd slip up and Herc would call him on it, but old habits died hard. He gestured towards the sling on Herc's right arm. "What happened?"

"They didn't tell you?" Herc shook his head and looked mildly embarrassed. "Had a nasty one come through and hit Sydney. Bastard had a mean right hook."

He'd seen the news clips just before Stacker had landed in Sitka to whisk him away, but something in Herc's voice told Raleigh there was more to the story. "That's it, huh?"

"Well, there was a flare gun involved. Not my finest moment."

"Are you saying you shot it with a flare gun?" Raleigh tried to process that when Herc nodded. "How'd that work out for you?"

"I'm just gonna say I owe the Kaidanovskys a case of vodka because they saved my arse," Herc laughed.

"How's Chuck?" Raleigh asked before he could stop himself.

A shuttered look settled onto Herc's face. "No change," he said, voice flat. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets. "Docs say it's unlikely he'll ever wake up and I'm lucky that the 'freak accident' put his mind inside the system."

"Fuck them." The same idiots had told him for months that it was impossible for him to still be connected to Yancy after his brother had been ripped from Gipsy Danger. "Seriously, fuck them. He could wake up tomorrow. They don't know."

"Said that myself a time or two," Herc finally said, lips twisting in a wry grin.

"May I see him?"

It was hard to tell who the request surprised more, Herc or Raleigh himself. They stood there for a moment, just looking at each other before Herc rubbed his hand across his jaw. "Why?"

"I'd like to pay my respects," Raleigh said. "He's a fellow Ranger."

"Good to know you still think of yourself as such," Herc quietly said. "I reckon he'll pitch a fit at you gawking over him since he's not a, how'd he put it, a museum exhibit, but come on."

"I'm not –"

"Oh, I know, son," Herc grinned, clapping his hand on Raleigh's shoulder. "And Chuck'll be thrilled you're coming to see him, but he's a contrary little cunt, so don't be surprised at anything he says."

"I'll try to keep that in mind."

*

The only sounds in the hospital room were the quiet beeping of the heart monitor and Herc's slow, steady breathing. The man lying in the bed looked nothing like Raleigh had imagined.

Sure, he'd fully expected the ginger hair and the dusting of freckles across his nose and cheekbones, but the rest... Well, Raleigh had been prepared for Chuck to be thin and gaunt due to years of no physical activity, not to be as big as he was. "He, ah," he said finally, "he looks good."

"Thanks to Dr. Lightcap and Professor Staizen." Herc gestured to a machine in the corner that was covered with wires and connections and made zero sense to Raleigh. "They figured out a way to stimulate his muscles and keep the level of atrophy way down. About two years back, they started using it in the hospitals back home on coma patients. Getting some pretty good results."

"Yeah, I can see that."

"This way, it won't take him long to get on his feet once he wakes up," Herc said. He smiled a little as he patted Chuck's hand. "Be nice to have him physically in Striker with me."

"So, ah, it's true?" Raleigh looked from Chuck to Herc and back again. He'd heard the rumors. "He's still your co-pilot?"

"Has been since Manila."

Manila. It had been the last Jaeger drop he and Yancy had participated in before Knifehead. The city had loved them, treated them like gods, and he and Yancy had absorbed it all like it was their due.

Like the cocky assholes they'd both been.

And just a few months later, Raleigh's world had been ripped apart.

_< <More like he's my co-pilot.>>_

Raleigh flinched at the new voice and tried to cover it by brushing imaginary lint from his sweater. "Ah, Chuck?"

_< <Yeah, mate. So how are ya, Ray?>>_

"It's Raleigh."

_< <Whatever. So tell me, Ray, what've you been doing for the last few years? Something important, I reckon.>>_

"Chuck," Herc said, a pained look crossing his face.

"No, it's okay." Raleigh didn't know where Chuck's animosity came from, but he wasn't going to rise to it. "I worked on the Wall. Not much demand out there for a disgraced ex-Jaeger pilot who got his brother killed."

Herc's sharp inhale was loud in the sudden silence.

_< <I've seen your file.>>_

Raleigh shared a look with Herc, and Herc shrugged. "And?"

_< <And if it's anyone's fault, it's the Marshal's. If the Gage twins had been deployed sooner, they could've caught the bastard before it ever got to you. Not to mention there's still no good reason for not deploying Brawler Yukon or Chrome Brutus as back-up. I would've done the same thing, y'know. Going after that boat was the right call.>>_

"Thank you," Raleigh managed, swallowing against the lump that formed in his throat. He'd tried to tell himself that for years, but to hear another Ranger say it...

_< <Knifehead could have happened to any of us. We got cocky, and they used it against us.>>_

"I heard Trevin and Bruce went down the same..." Raking a hand through his hair, Raleigh looked around the room. He focused on the camera in the corner when Herc pointed. "They were good men."

"So was your brother," Herc murmured, patting Raleigh's shoulder.

_< <So are you, Raleigh. Good to have you back.>>_

"Thanks," Raleigh said again, at a loss for words from Chuck's sudden about face. He didn't resist when Herc started to lead him from the room.

"And there's something else," Herc said, raising his voice and looking at ceiling. "The nosy little arsehole is _always_ listening in, even when he shouldn't. And he can tap into any of the cameras. So don't do anything that'll embarrass you if it gets out."

"I, ah, thanks for the warning."

"Told you he was contrary. He's a good kid and smart as hell, but sometimes... Well, let's just say I wish he was here so I could give him a good, hard shaking."

_< <I heard that.>>_

And if Herc's comments made Raleigh more than a bit paranoid, he didn't think anyone would blame him.

*

"Congratulations, kiddo, you've managed to confuse the hell out of him." Tendo dropped onto his bunk, arms crossed behind his head, and grinned up at the camera in the corner.

_< <Dunno what you're talking about, mate.>>_

"Raleigh?" Tendo arched an eyebrow when Chuck didn't immediately respond. "Talked with him at dinner, which I'm sure you already know, and he said Herc brought him by to see you. He said you were a little shit at first and then, out of nowhere, you were welcoming him back."

_< <Oh, that. Yeah, they came by to ogle the veggie.>>_

"Chuck," Tendo sighed. "You know that no one thinks –"

_< <He's not what I expected.>>_

The abrupt shift made Tendo frown, but he went along with it. If he'd learned one thing about Chuck, it was that he would talk about things in his own time. And yeah, sometimes that meant never, but that was just Chuck.

"What do you mean?"

_< <All his interviews, reports. He seemed like a pretty happy, upbeat bloke.>>_

"He was," Tendo quietly said.

_< <He's not like that now. I've been watching him since he got back. He hasn't talked to anyone except my dad. And he's kept mostly to himself.>>_

Chuck's observations were no more than Tendo had expected. "You read his file?"

_< <Cover to cover. Did they really try to convince him that he wasn't still connected to his brother when he got ripped out of the Pod?>>_

"Yeah. They called it ghost drifting and said the neural overload caused hallucinations."

_< <They're idiots.>>_

"Some of them, yeah," Tendo replied with a soft laugh. "So what else did you learn in your snooping?"

_< <Sleuthing. He was in a coma for six weeks. Verbally non-responsive after he woke up and displayed signs of severe PTSD. Almost lost use of his left arm and managed to regain 75% use after four weeks of intense physical therapy. Repeatedly asked to see Yancy until they showed him the remnants of Gipsy Danger and then he didn't say his brother's name in anyone's hearing again during the remainder of his time in the PPDC.>>_

"And his psych eval?" He'd seen part of Raleigh's file afterward, but it had been a very small part. The majority had been redacted, available only via the Marshal's security clearance.

_< <They recommended he undergo extensive psychological counseling and continue with physical therapy as well transfer to J-Tech until such time as he could be tested for Drift compatibility again.>>_

Damn, no wonder Raleigh had run.

_< <The psych eval was accepted and signed off by Marshal Stacker Pentecost, effective May 21, 2020. Those orders were over-ridden by Secretary-General Dustin Kreiger. On June 1, 2020, Ranger Raleigh Becket was dishonorably discharged from the Pan Pacific Defense Corp for disobeying direct orders that resulted in the death of his co-pilot, Yancy Becket, and the destruction of the Jaeger, Gipsy Danger.>>_

"No, he left," Tendo said, shaking his head.

_< <Elvis...I'm just quoting you what's in the file. Word for word. He didn't leave. They kicked him out.>>_

"Does he know all of this? About Kreiger overriding the Marshall and the psych recommendations and everything?"

_< <The report was made available to him at the travesty of a court martial the Secretary-General enacted. I don't know if he ever read it. He should have, though.>>_

"Why's that?"

_< <Buncha rangers, including my dad and Uncle Scott, filed statements supporting the Beckets' decision and asserting that they would have taken the same course of action even if given direct orders to do the opposite. The crew of the fishing boat, Saltchuck, also wrote letters praising the Beckets and thanking them for their actions that night.>>_

There was no way Raleigh had read the report. Tendo had seen him once that last week of May, and the kid had been lost and gutted still. If he'd known of all the support...

"Chuck, is Raleigh asleep?"

_< <He's in the Kwoon. You want him?>>_

"No, no, just..." What he said next would land him in a huge pile of shit if the Marshal found out, but what the hell. It wasn't like they had any official chain of command aside from Pentecost himself. "Do me a favor. Put those statements on Raleigh's monitor and flag them."

_< <Done.>>_

With a quick prayer that his actions didn't blow up in his face, Tendo stretched out on his bed again. "So tell me, kiddo, what'd you think?"

_< <About?>>_

"Raleigh," Tendo said in exasperated amusement.

_< <I told you. He's not what I expected.>>_

"Looks good though, all things considered," Tendo commented, taking care to not look up at the camera again. He scratched his chin, shrugged. "Grown into his looks. Not as pretty as he used to be, but..."

_< <He looks better. Too skinny though, but I suppose they didn't feed him much up on that bloody wall.>>_

"But?" Tendo looked towards the camera with a sly grin.

Chuck didn't answer. Tendo just waited. It was a matter of minutes before his patience paid off for him.

 _< <There aren't any 'buts', Elvis.>>_ Tendo pressed his lips tightly together to keep from smiling when Chuck paused. _< <And anyway, I'm still stuck in this bloody hell that is my life now, or did you forget?>>_

"Haven't forgotten a thing, Chuckles. I just wanted to see if you were still crushing on Becket boy."

_< <Get stuffed, mate. And don't tell him that.>>_

"I won't if you do."

_< <I repeat, get stuffed, mate.>>_

*

_< <You're too skinny.>>_

Raleigh jerked violently, dropping his towel and hissing as his knee connected with the bench. "Jesus Christ!"

_< <No, just Chuck.>>_

"Are you _watching_ me?" He snatched up the towel and wrapped it around his hips before looking around the empty showers. When he found the camera, he glared at it. "Really?"

_< <You're a Jaeger pilot, Ray. Trying to tell me you're embarrassed about a little bit of skin?>>_

"That's not the point," Raleigh muttered, grabbing another towel and dropping onto the bench. He rubbed the second towel over his head in an effort to dry his hair. "It's called privacy. I'm sure your dad taught you that when you were little."

_< <Australian, mate. We don't have many boundaries.>>_

"I'm starting to get that." Draping the towel around his neck, Raleigh focused on the camera again. "Why're you spying on me, anyway?"

_< <Everyone else in this place is boring as fuck besides Tendo, and he's asleep.>>_

"So you thought you'd come peep at me in the shower?" Raleigh shook his head. "You spy on everyone in here?"

_< <Your scars aren't as bad as I thought they'd be.>>_

Raleigh looked down at his arm and shoulder. He touched the scars on his chest, slid his fingertips along the lines marking his arm. "Yeah, I healed up okay," he said. "You know, if you don't answer that, I'm just going to assume you're a pervert."

_< <I don't.>>_

Raleigh headed for the pile of newly issued clothes he'd left on another bench. "I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse."

_< <If you're angling for a compliment on your arse, Raleigh, you don't need to. It's pretty impressive.>>_

Raleigh let out a startled laugh. "Chuck... Stop staring at my ass."

_< <You'd rather I stare at your dong? Because I gotta say, it's pretty damn impressive, too.>>_

"Stop, stop," Raleigh said, wondering if his face was as red as it felt. How had they ended up in _this_ conversation? He cleared his throat and dragged on his trousers, trying not to rush because he could just imagine Chuck's reaction to that. "So, uh, you just come in here to stare at my ass and, uh, my –"

_< <No, just thought we could talk, y'know? It's the middle of the night, and, like I said, all the cool people are asleep. Except you.>>_

"Yeah, well, insomnia will do that to you." Raleigh dragged the sweater over his head and shoved his feet into his boots. He glanced at the door. "Can you talk anywhere?"

_< <All the Shatterdomes were fitted with full camera and speaker systems after the accident, in case me and Dad ever got stationed anywhere besides Australia. So if you want to go walkabout, no worries. There might be pauses if you're between locations, but I can still hear you anywhere you go.>>_

"Come on then." Raleigh left the showers, hands shoved deep in his pockets, and started walking. He didn't have a particular destination in mind, but he trusted that he could find his way around – all of the Shatterdomes had been built on the same basic specs – and if he did get lost, he was sure Chuck could talk him back to somewhere familiar. "So, uh, if everyone is asleep, why –"

_< <I don't sleep. I mean, I am asleep, sort of. My body is. This, though, I have down times when I just kinda, I dunno, drift, I guess. Mostly though, I'm up and running and learning new things.>>_

"What kind of things?" Raleigh was genuinely curious. He wanted to ask about the accident, but he didn't know Chuck well enough to pry.

_< <I'm fluent in twelve different languages, including Latin and ancient Greek, I can build a Jaeger from the ground up or rewire the entire Conn-Pod if necessary, I can reprogram the entire Shatterdome, but Elvis has threatened to unplug me if I do, I can detail ten different ways to kill a person and make it look like an accident, I can recite the stats on any country in the world complete with an abbreviated history, and I can tell you where to find the best sushi in Hong Kong.>>_

"All that," Raleigh laughed. "Ten different ways, huh?"

_< <The top ten. There are more.>>_

"You're scary."

_< <Australian.>>_

As if that explained everything. And given what Raleigh knew of Australia (and his memories of Herc and Scott in Manila), it probably did. "So you're a genius, huh?"

_< <Something like that. I'm still me, but I take in information at a faster rate now. And I've had more time to absorb it.>>_

"I bet that would make going through the Academy so much easier," Raleigh teased.

_< <Dunno about that, but it makes it a hell of a lot easier to pilot. There's no need for LOCCENT to relay the information to us. Striker's got the kill record for a reason.>>_

Raleigh stopped and looked both ways down the hall. There was no one in sight. "Chuck," he said quietly, looking right at the closest camera. "Why am I here?"

_< <The Marshal didn't tell you?>>_

"No, not really. He just said that he needed a pilot and I was it. Asked me if I wanted to die on the Wall or in a Jaeger. It wasn't really a choice."

_< <We're making a bomb run on the Breach. Striker's taking point and the others are there to keep the kaiju off us. Shoving a thermonuclear warhead down their throats.>>_

"We've tried that before," Raleigh said. "It's never worked."

_< <It will this time.>>_

"Why? I don't have a Jaeger and you don't have a co-pilot –" Raleigh halted as what he'd said hit him. Realization dawned slowly and he stared at the nearest camera with a sinking feeling in his gut.

_< <Figured it out, did you? You and me, we're Drift compatible, Ray.>>_

*

Raleigh spent the rest of the night sitting on the roof of the Shatterdome, away from cameras and speakers and prying eyes, telling himself that this was a bad idea. He couldn't let someone else in his head again.

"Yance," he whispered as he pulled his knees up and rested his forehead on them.

The grief was still a raw, aching wound inside of him. Five years had done nothing to diminish it. And now the Marshal wanted him to Drift again. Wanted him to trust someone like that, to bare his soul and lay himself open once more.

Wanted him to risk that sort of loss again, or worse, put someone else in his place.

He couldn't do it.

Falling backwards, Raleigh stretched out on the roof and counted the stars. "Yancy," he said, "what the hell do I do?"

_There isn't anyone else._

Yancy's voice inside his head echoed the Marshal's words from the Wall.

It was only when dawn crept in on silent feet that he finally was ready to talk to Chuck again.

"Okay," he said as he stepped back inside, "talk to me."

_< <What do you want me to say?>>_

"Tell me this is a bad idea."

_< <Yeah, nah, not gonna happen. The Marshal had Tendo run our scores and sims against each other.>>_

"And just like that he thinks we can Drift?"

_< <Why are you here, Raleigh?>>_

"What?" Startled, Raleigh lifted his head and looked at the closest camera.

_< <Why are you here? Why'd you come back?>>_

"Because," Raleigh said softly, ducking his head again, "I'd rather die in a Jaeger than on that damn Wall."

_< <Then get your arse suited up and get in Striker with me.>>_

Rubbing his hands over his face, Raleigh nodded. He could do this. He owed it to Yancy to at least try. "Let's do it."

 

An hour later, taking Herc's and Chuck's advice – and acknowledging that his own left arm wasn't up to taking the load after Knifehead – Raleigh locked into the dominant pilot's side.

"Doing okay in there?"

"I'm good, Tendo." Closing his eyes, Raleigh tried to clear his mind. "It feels weird to be in here by myself."

_< <Oi, I'm right fucking here, mate.>>_

"Okay, yeah, sorry," Raleigh chuckled.

"We can give you a few if you need it," Tendo offered.

"No, I'm good. Really."

"I'll take your word for it. It's your show, Chuck."

_< <About bloody time. Link with LOCCENT is initialized, me and Ray are both logged in, let's drop.>>_

Raleigh frowned. "That isn't –"

"Don't," Tendo broke in, "just...don't. Just be glad you weren't here for the Great Log-In Controversy of '19."

_< <Ever figure out how to get those changed back, Elvis?>>_

"One of these days I will," Tendo said, and Raleigh told himself that he really didn't want to know.

_< <Keep telling yourself that. We dropping?>>_

"Preparing for Conn-Pod drop. Just sit back and enjoy the show, gentlemen."

Locks disengaged and Striker's head plummeted. Raleigh kept his eyes closed and let his body sway with the motion.

"Chuck, bring her online for me," Tendo said after the Conn-Pod fully connected with Striker's body.

Counting each breath, Raleigh listened to Chuck go through the checklist. It was all so familiar that he wanted to look over and see Yancy. He only opened his eyes when Chuck went silent.

"Still doing okay?"

"Yeah, thanks," Raleigh said, feeling anything but okay.

"Alright, initializing neural handshake in three, two, one..."

The blue-white silence of the Drift washed over Raleigh. Images flitted by, tumbling over each other – pictures of his own past, a much younger Herc, a woman who could only be Chuck's mother, Shatterdome locations, kaiju battles – and he just let them flow.

_< <Left hemisphere calibrated.>>_

"Right hemisphere calibrated," Raleigh said after carefully checking the display in front of him. He let out a shaky laugh. "We're drifting."

_< <Told you.>>_

"Neural handshake strong and holding steady at 99%. Congratulations, boys, you did it."

"So what's next?" Looking down at his hands, Raleigh saw black gloves covering his fingers and scarred white armor running up his forearms.

Wait. That wasn't right. They'd given him a new drivesuit, shiny and black. The white suit was long gone.

Without thinking, Raleigh looked to his left. And saw himself, face twisted with fear and shock, as a bestial roar echoed through his head.

He slipped sideways.

"Raleigh, talk to me," Tendo called, his voice a faint echo beneath Knifehead's unceasing roars. "You're out of alignment."

_< <Ray, don't chase it, let it go. It's just a memory. It's not real.>>_

"Yance," Raleigh breathed, perspective shifting as Knifehead's claws tore through metal and latched onto the motion rig.

_Kid, listen to me –_

No. Not again.

Raleigh chased the RABIT.

_< <It's just a memory, Ray! Stay with me!>>_

"Come on, Raleigh, focus. You can do this."

The voices were a low buzz in his ears. Raleigh ignored them. Icy wind bit into him, working its way through the layers of the drivesuit, but grief was a molten core in his middle.

Just like Gipsy's reactor.

Screaming his rage at the monster in front of him – the monster who had stolen his brother from him – Raleigh lifted his arms, clenched his fists, and rotated his wrists to engage the plasma cannons. Only Gipsy's plasma cannons were gone.

She had something new – an AKM chest launcher, fully loaded. Even fucking better.

_< <Raleigh, none of this is real, goddamnit, it's just a memory!>>_

"Abort, abort!"

_< <What the fuck do you think I'm trying to do in here, Elvis? >>_

"The override isn't working!"

_< <Of course it isn't. He's locked in too goddamn tight.>>_

Raleigh drowned in the memory of Anchorage and Yancy and Knifehead and that cold February morning.

_< <Pull the goddamn plug! I can't kick him out.>>_

"We can't pull it with you in there!"

_< <Fuck that, I'll be fine. Now pull the goddamn plug or he's going to take out half the bloody Dome.>>_

*

Herc still couldn't think about what had almost just happened without shaking a little. "Look, Stacker," he said, hands clenched into fists. "I know you think it's best, but neither one of them is ready. Raleigh's rusty and –"

"I understand, but –"

_< <This is ridiculous, sir. With all due respect, he doesn't belong in a Jaeger.>>_

"Chuck –"

_< <No, Dad. He's putting our lives and the entire mission at risk. I can't trust that he won't RABIT again when we're making the bomb run. I'm the only chance we've got, Marshal, and I'm stuck with two prison guards, the basketball triplets, and a has-been who can't fucking handle it.>>_

"That is _enough_ , Mr. Hansen." Stacker's voice thundered through the room. "Raleigh Becket is all we have, so I suggest you make your peace with it. You will give him the chance he deserves, or you will be stuck with me as your co-pilot and neither of us wants that. Dismissed."

_< <Sir.>>_

"And if I find out that you've eavesdropped on my office, I will personally watch as Mr. Choi scrubs the systems. Do I make myself clear, Ranger?"

_< <Yes, sir.>>_

Herc waited a long moment, eyes focused on Stacker's desk. "You know he's right."

"Herc –"

"No, listen to me for a second," Herc said, rounding on his boss and long-time friend. "Raleigh's not ready. And I don't reckon we've got time to get him ready. So we're gonna have to suck it up, put on our big boy pants, and deal with it. But it doesn't mean we have to like it."

"I know," Stacker quietly replied as he circled the desk to stand beside Herc. "Maybe I was wrong going after him. There are others –"

"Look, I get it," Herc interrupted. "I do. I know you want to ground him. If we had any other options, I'd give the decision my full support. Hell, half the time I want to ground Chuck. And we all saw what happened out there, but you _can't_."

"That doesn't make it any easier."

"Stacker, we go all the way back to the beginning. We stood up to the first kaiju and kicked their arses. We've watched the next generation of Rangers come up and stand on our shoulders. That's the way it's always been and maybe that's the way it's always going to be, but we don't have to like it. We can _change_ it, right here and now."

Herc paused and ran a hand over his head. "The way I see it – much as it kills me to say it since it's _my_ son I'm sending out there with him – we have to get Becket back on his feet and back in that Jaeger sooner than we want to."

"That's far easier said than done."

Herc nodded. Nothing else needed to be said.

*

"Oh. My apologies, Ranger Becket. I didn't realize anyone was here."

Raleigh looked up at the voice. Dr. Gottlieb stood in the doorway, book tucked under one arm. He looked as out of place as Raleigh felt. "No, it's okay. I just..." Raleigh stood. "Come in, Doctor."

"Please, call me Hermann."

"I...yeah, sure. If you'll call me Raleigh."

Hermann nodded, a faint smile crossing his face. His eyes remained focused on the hospital bed. "Dr. Geiszler and I spent some time in Sydney over the past few years," he said, glancing at Raleigh. "Charles and I have had many conversations. He's an incredibly smart young man."

"Yeah, I kinda picked up on that," Raleigh replied. He gestured towards the chair, pleased when Hermann settled into it, and moved to lean against the wall.

"I, uh, started to read to him after the incident." Hermann held up the book in his hand, and Raleigh was startled to see it was _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_. "He can read them for himself, of course, but he said it was different when I read them to him. More like his father used to do when he was a small child. We'd just finished the second book that last time we were together, so I thought we might..."

"It's been a long time since I read those."

"You're welcome to stay." Hermann paused, peered at Raleigh over his glasses. "I wasn't aware that you and Charles were friends."

"We're not," Raleigh said. He scratched his jaw, then shrugged. "Not exactly."

"So why are you here?"

Raleigh blinked, caught off guard by the question. Why _was_ he there? As soon as he'd heard that Chuck was meeting with the Marshal and Herc, Raleigh had left the drivesuit room and headed right for the Marshal's office.

He'd arrived just in time to hear Chuck's comments.

Ignoring the pitying looks from the handful of people clustered in the hallway, Raleigh had spun on his heel and walked away without a word. After all, it wasn't like Chuck hadn't said anything that Raleigh hadn't said to himself repeatedly over the last five years.

But that didn't explain why he was there in Chuck's hospital room.

"Because I think we could be friends," he finally said. "He's an asshole, sure, but... I was, too. Before my brother died. And I just... I know I screwed up out there, trust me, I _know_. And I wish... Well, it doesn't matter what I wish. I just didn't think he should be alone right now."

Or perhaps it was more that Raleigh didn't want to be alone, but he didn't want to be around anyone who would try to talk to him, to tell him that things would be okay or that he was just going to get them all killed that much sooner. And maybe it was just that he'd remembered that the stakes were just as big for Chuck.

At the end of the day, Chuck wasn't just a disembodied voice in a computer. He was person who'd been ripped from himself and was just trying to make the best of a seriously fucked up situation. And, just like Raleigh, a mistake during the mission would kill him just as dead.

Hermann studied him. He wanted to say something, that much was evident by his expression, but he just nodded and opened the book. His voice was low, cultured, and far more soothing than Raleigh had expected.

"Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways. For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year. For another..."

*

"Chuck?" There was no answer, but Herc hadn't expected one. Not with the mood Chuck had been in earlier. "Come on, kiddo, we need to talk."

_< <So talk.>>_

"How about you talk and I'll listen this time." Herc settled into his chair and waited. With a busted collarbone, he didn't have any place he needed to be, so he could wait forever if that was what it took.

_< <This isn't going to goddamn work.>>_

"Why not?"

_< <Because I'm supposed to trust that he won't chase a bloody RABIT while we're out there, and I can't do that. He's got no damn business in a Jaeger!>>_

"You said that already." Herc paused, considering his words. The wrong ones would send Chuck into a rage. Even slightly wrong ones would have him in a snit and not talking to anyone for days, and they didn't have time for that. "He's the only option we've got."

_< <Then we've got no options, because he can't fucking handle it, and I'm not willing to put this mission in his hands.>>_

"Goddamnit, shut up and listen to me," Herc snapped, and the temperature in the room dropped. He glared at the camera until he heard the click of the heater coming on. "Son, I love you, but you're a right pain in the arse a lot of the time. You need to go easy on Raleigh."

_< <We don't have time –>>_

"We don't have time for your bullshit. Maybe you've forgotten what it means to be truly fucking afraid because you've been out of your body so long –" And oh, those words hurt more than Herc wanted to admit, and he knew it was a low blow, but sometimes that was the only way to get through to Chuck. "Maybe you don't remember, but the rest of us do. And it's really fucking scary, okay? So cut him some slack, because he's a damn good pilot and we need him. _You_ need him."

_< <You're my co-pilot.>>_

"Not for this, Chuck," Herc sighed. Not for this, and maybe not ever again. But Herc didn't set those words free.

*

_< <Ray, can we talk?>>_

"It's Raleigh," he said through clenched teeth. "And why would you want to talk to a has-been?"

_< <About that...>>_

"Yeah, about that," Raleigh growled, turning to look directly at the camera in his room. "I heard every word. In fact, I'm pretty sure the entire 'Dome heard it all."

_< <I'm sorry.>>_

Raleigh stopped with his mouth open. "What?"

_< <I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it. I know your file, I know everything you went through and how hard it must have been to get back in there. You haven't drifted since Anchorage. So I'd like to apologize.>>_

"Wow," Raleigh breathed, dropping to the edge of his bunk. "I didn't expect that from you."

_< <Yeah, well. If you tell anyone, I'll deny it.>>_

"Now _that_ doesn't surprise me." Bracing his elbows on his knees, Raleigh dropped his head into his hands. "You're right, though. What happened, that was my fault. I went out of synch. I looked over and just... The right side was Yancy's, so I saw myself in the Drift, and I couldn't deal with it. It was just for a few seconds, but I couldn't stop chasing it."

_< <It wasn't your fault. We should have been in a simulator first. Fucking boneheaded move, that, putting you in a Jaeger for the first run.>>_

"Real live Drifts are different, you know that."

_< <Yeah, but they don't toss us into Jaegers in the Academy. It's all simulation until you prove you can control yourself.>>_

Raleigh opened his mouth to say something, then shook his head as a wave of exhaustion swamped him. He was too tired for this, too tired to keep his thoughts coherent enough for a conversation. "Chuck, look, can we talk about all this in the morning? I'm not... I'm not mad, okay? I just need some sleep."

_< <Yeah, sure, mate. No worries. Get some rest.>>_

 

"I know you're there," Raleigh said a few hours later. He opened his eyes to the darkness of his quarters, giving up on falling asleep again because it just wasn't going to happen.

And anyway, if he believed Dr. Gottlieb – Hermann, he reminded himself – there would be another attack in a matter of hours. A day at the most. Raleigh knew he wouldn't get any sleep for a long time.

"Chuck?"

_< <I'm here.>>_

Raleigh closed his eyes again and smiled. "Good to hear your voice, kid."

_< <Mate, you're aware that I'm an adult, right?>>_

"I know." Rolling to his side, Raleigh propped up on one arm and reached to flip the covers back but he'd barely managed to curl his fingers around the blankets before the lights over the small sink in the corner brightened. "Thanks."

_< <Don't thank me. I just don't wanna listen to you bitching when you run into something in the dark.>>_

"Well, thank you for saving my toes."

_< <You taking the piss?>>_

"Nope. So...speaking of breaking things, how _did_ your dad break his collarbone?"

_< <He tell you what happened?>>_

"Something about Striker going down in Sydney and a flare gun."

_< <Well, as abbreviated versions go, that's not bad.>>_

"So he really did fire a flare gun at the kaiju," Raleigh said, unable to keep from grinning at the mental image of Herc Hansen standing on top of Striker Eureka with a flare gun in his hand and an incredibly pissed off kaiju in front of him.

_< <Oh, yeah. It was bloody, brilliantly stupid. Crazy bastard crawled right out of the Conn-Pod, yelled at the damn thing about denting his ride, and then bang. Shot Mutavore right in the eye with that flare. The Jumphawks caught it all, so you can watch it if you want. All these years and sometimes the old man still manages to amaze me.>>_

Raleigh could hear the pride in Chuck's voice, underlain with a large amount of love. He heard the same thing every single time Herc talked about Chuck. "How do you feel?"

_< <Ray, I'm a voice in a bloody big machine. I don't feel anything. I can't even tell you if my body feels anything.>>_

"You know what I mean."

Raleigh waited, patient, as the seconds ticked away. He didn't expect Chuck to answer – he'd become too acquainted with his personality over the last few days – but he would listen if Chuck wanted to talk.

_< <What do you think our odds are?>>_

Not the response he'd hoped for, but at least Chuck hadn't retreated into the system. "Honestly? We've got three Jaegers, enough healthy pilots for two, and me. The odds aren't good."

_< <The odds could be worse.>>_

"Yeah, I suppose so," Raleigh said as he shook his head.

_< <Y'know, you're a pretty good listener.>>_

"I'll always listen, Chuck," Raleigh said, the words slipping out before he could think about them. He swung his feet off the bed and shoved them into his boots as he reached for his shirt.

_< <You asked how I felt.>>_

Chuck's words made Raleigh freeze. "I did."

_< <I'm scared. Bloody terrified, actually. No matter what we do, this is a one way trip most likely. If we had more Jaegers, it's a no brainer, but with just three, well. I can't guarantee any of us will come back from this one.>>_

"Chuck," Raleigh said, as gently as he could, wishing he was back in Chuck's room, wishing they were talking face to face instead of face to camera. "There was never a guarantee. We all accepted that the first time we stepped into a Conn-Pod. But if we can end this war, it'll be worth it, right?"

_< <I want to come back from this mission. I want a life, Raleigh.>>_

"I want to come back, too," Raleigh said as he dropped back onto the edge of his bunk. He sat there for a moment before looking at the camera again. "Can I ask you something?"

_< <You just did.>>_

"Ha." Raleigh chewed the inside of his bottom lip as he considered his next words. Chuck hadn't said no, but there was still a chance he'd get pissed if Raleigh said the wrong thing. "Will you tell me what happened?"

_< <You mean to me? How I ended up like this?>>_

"Yeah."

 _< <Yeah, sure. Why not?>>_ There was a long pause as Raleigh settled back on his pillow. _< <Will you tell me about Yancy?>>_

Yancy. Just the thought of talking about him made Raleigh's throat tight and his vision shimmer. But he smiled as he scrubbed one hand across his eyes. "Yeah, Chuck," he said. "I'll tell you about him."

*

"Chuck, I don't know how the Marshal convinced everyone to go along with letting you and Becket back out there this soon, but –"

_< <Dad, it'll work. You can't pilot right now and we don't have the luxury of waiting until you're healed.>>_

Herc sighed and slumped in his chair. "You know Stacker was serious about co-piloting with you, don't you?"

_< <I do. And I can't sit back and watch him kill himself like that. Even if he made it back, we both know it would just be a matter of weeks.>>_

"So you'd rather –"

_< <There's still a better than even chance he'll have several more years this way. And as rusty as Raleigh is, you know the Marshal would be worse.>>_

Herc took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He did it again. "Chuck, I know we've had our differences, and there are things I never said, but –"

_< <Don't. I know them all. I always have.>>_

"Think you could maybe leave a little bit of yourself behind this time?" Herc asked quietly, but he already knew the answer. With Chuck, it had always been all or nothing. And every time Striker deployed, every last bit of Chuck went with her...and Herc prayed for a safe return each time.

_< <You know I can't.>>_

"Be careful down there, son."

_< <Don't worry, old man. I'll get them all home safe and sound.>>_

But it wasn't them that Herc worried about – it was Chuck. He'd been in Chuck's head. And more than anything else, he knew that Chuck didn't know how to give up or surrender.

*

"How're they doing over there?"

_< <Neural handshakes are strong and steady.>>_

"Good." Raleigh closed his eyes and forced his body to relax muscle by muscle. They were still a good distance from the actual drop. The last thing he wanted was to be tense when they hit the water. "You okay?"

_< <I'm good, Ray. Your pulse is up, though.>>_

"Thanks, Dr. Hansen," Raleigh said, smiling as he shook his head and swayed with the motion of the Jaeger. "I'm nervous."

_< <No need to be. I'll get you home safe.>>_

"No guarantees, remember?" Raleigh could feel Chuck's amusement, tinged with a large amount of arrogance, through the Drift. It was, by far, the weirdest thing he'd ever felt.

Weirder even than discovering how much Yancy liked to be pegged.

_< <Did he really?>>_

Raleigh burst out laughing at the scandalized tone of Chuck's voice. "He did," he admitted once he'd regained control. "I found out during our second Drift. He wasn't gay by any means, but show him a tiny slip of a girl with a big strap-on? He'd bend over so fast your head would spin."

_< <And you?>>_

"And me what?"

_< <You know.>>_

Raleigh knew exactly what Chuck meant. "You mean pegging? Nah, I prefer the real thing."

_< <You mean. Oh.>>_

"I mean dildos are fun, sure, but I'd rather have a real cock, and why are we having this conversation?"

Chuck laughed and Raleigh's eyes widened. It was a beautiful sound, one he'd never heard before, and he couldn't help thinking that Chuck should do it more often. _< <We're having it because we still have two hours until disconnect, and you were the one who thought about pegging. So you're gay?>>_

Chuck's conversational shifts always made his head spin a little. But Chuck had asked, and Raleigh had never been ashamed of who or what he was. "Bi, actually," Raleigh replied. "Why, you interested?"

The level of embarrassment that swept over him made Raleigh's face burn. It took a moment to sort out that it wasn't _his_ embarrassment he felt. Well, wasn't _that_ interesting.

_< <We have a welcome committee waiting for us. Two Category IV kaiju, code names Scunner and Raiju, are hanging out pretty close to the Breach.>>_

"Alright, lemme see the stats on them," Raleigh laughed. He'd let it slide for now, but it was definitely a conversation they would have again if they lived through this.

*

"Switching to instruments," Raleigh called out, well aware that Chuck could already see through the sediment the three Jaegers had stirred up when they landed on the ocean floor. "What're we looking at, Tendo?"

"Kaiju still active in the quadrant, but they're sticking close to the Breach. Keep your eyes open out there."

"What's our status?"

_< <Half mile from the Breach, but I can't see a bloody fucking inch out here.>>_

"Guys, we have movement on your left flank," Tendo said.

_< <Didn't I just say I can't see anything.>>_

"It's there. And it's moving fast. Faster than anything we've seen so far."

Raleigh watched the display in front of him, relying on Chuck to keep a closer watch. "How far?"

"Half mile to the Breach," Tendo said, "then it's – look out, Crimson, brace for impact!"

"What the hell's going on?" Raleigh said, trying to track the movements on Striker's monitors. "Chuck, talk to me."

_< <Raiju came in hard on Crimson's right. He's fucking quick, looks like he's built strictly for the water. They're doing okay, though. Holding him off for now, so come on, we've got a bomb to drop.>>_

"Go, Striker," Cheung called, his words punctuated by harsh grunts as Jin (at least, Raleigh thought it was Jin because Hu almost never said a word) rattled something off in Mandarin too fast for Raleigh to translate. "We have this."

"Scunner's moving in, Cherno," Tendo said. His words had Raleigh cursing under his breath.

_< <Focus, Ray. We can do this. And the quicker we get it done, the quicker we can get the fuck out of here and go home.>>_

"Let's do this." Raleigh tried to ignore the running commentary in his ear. They could do nothing for the Kaidanovskys and the Weis. Not until they dropped the bomb. And maybe not even then, but it was a risk they'd all accepted.

They had no other choice.

Striker was closer to the Breach, barely a hundred meters away, and Raleigh had to force himself to take each step as he listened to the Weis scream in pain. Time stretched out, coalesced, twisted and warped, and Raleigh felt sweat slide down his spine beneath his circuitry suit.

"Raiju is dead, I repeat, Raiju is dead. There's only one – movement in the Breach! We have another signature rising!"

"What is it, Tendo?" Raleigh studied the screens, blocking out everything except the information the satellites were feeding them. "Talk to me, damn it!"

_< <Raleigh.>>_

"What?"

_< <We have a problem.>>_

"Yeah, we're at the bottom of the ocean with a nuke strapped to our back and a pissed off kaiju in the water," Raleigh snapped, his nerves fraying. "Isn't that enough of a problem for you?"

_< <Nah, mate, we're gonna need a bigger boat.>>_

There was a brief second of silence before Tendo snorted out a laugh. Raleigh found himself chuckling. "Seriously? You know that movie?"

_< <Everyone knows Jaws. But great whites are the least of our worries right now.>>_

"I need information, Chuck."

"Kaiju emerging now," Tendo said, and Raleigh's blood turned to ice at the tension in Tendo's voice. "Bitch is _big_."

"Mr. Choi," Stacker's voice crackled over the comm line. "We will not use that word. Call it Slattern if you must."

_< <We're fucked.>>_

"Chuck," Raleigh said through clenched teeth, flooding the neural bridge with every bit of his anger and resolve, feeling Chuck's rush back to meet him. "We're not giving up, goddamnit. Give me the stats on that thing."

_< <Kaiju codenamed Slattern measures 181.6 meters and weighs approximately 6,750 tons based on water displacement. It's our first ever Category V.>>_

Chuck's voice was calm and cool, but Raleigh could feel his fear bleeding through the Drift. Three times their size. Jesus Christ.

"Striker, we are coming!"

"No," Raleigh said, coming out of his daze at the sound of Sasha's voice. "Concentrate on Scunner."

Raleigh planted his feet and snapped his arms out to the sides. He didn't know if he initiated it or if Chuck did, but it didn't matter.

_< <Sting-blades deployed. Preparing to move into position now.>>_

What came next happened too fast. Events etched themselves into his mind in flashes, like single frames of a movie reel, and he lost track of where he ended and Chuck began. It felt like hours, but he knew it was only seconds, before Striker landed a solid hit on the kaiju.

_< <Raleigh, watch out!>>_

Raleigh barely had time to hear the warning. He had no time to see Slattern's three tails whipping around and slamming into Striker's frame, sending the Jaeger flying through the water. They landed hard against an underwater ridge, and Raleigh screamed as pain seared up his spine.

It felt like his head exploded.

Slattern followed them, pummeling Striker with heavy blows that threatened to shake Raleigh loose from the pilot motion rig. Sparks flew all around him as systems shorted out, and Raleigh flailed both arms.

It was only sheer, dumb luck that landed a solid blow against Slattern's head, denting an orbital socket and knocking the kaiju off the Jaeger.

_< <Ray!>>_

"I'm here," he grunted, forcing his body up, climbing back to his feet. Striker was slow to respond, and Raleigh felt the grinding gears and ripped muscle strands as if they were his own flesh and blood. "Chuck, we have to finish this."

"Raleigh, Chuck, listen," Tendo said, sounding more frantic than Raleigh had ever heard. "Newt and Hermann are here and they drifted with a kaiju, don't ask me how, but they say it's not going to work."

"What?"

_< <What?>>_

"Charles, it won't work, not like you have it planned," Hermann said, his words rushed, and Raleigh closed his eyes.

Just as he'd thought, this was a suicide mission. For nothing.

_< <Don't you dare fucking give up on me, Raleigh. How do we make it work, Doc?>>_

"You have to fool the Breach into thinking you are a kaiju. It reads them, like a barcode at the supermarket, and it will not let you through otherwise."

_< <How do we do that?>>_

Raleigh's eyes opened. "We take it with us."

_< <What?>>_

"Ranger Becket is correct. Charles, listen, you _must_ send the bomb into the Breach with one of the kaiju and remote detonate it. There is no other way."

_< <Oh, that's fucking aces. We'll just shove the bomb in this cunt's mouth and dropkick it back home then.>>_

"It's not going to be that easy." Raleigh's eyes were on the switches and readouts above his head. "The release mechanism was damaged when Slattern hit us, Chuck. We can't drop the bomb."

_< <Then we get you out and I finish it.>>_

"Chuck, listen to me –"

"Striker, you have movement behind you. Scunner's heading straight for you, get the hell out of there!"

The impact slammed Striker forward, dropping the Jaeger to her hands and knees. Raleigh gritted his teeth as fresh pain wracked his body. He struggled back to his feet and wondered if dying would hurt. As he felt Chuck's thoughts wrap around his, Raleigh took comfort in the fact that at least he wouldn't die alone. "LOCCENT, right arm is offline, defense systems are fried, and the hull is compromised. Preparing to engage AKMs. We're going to give it everything we've got and take these bastards out."

"Becket boy, no," There was a world of grief in Tendo's voice. "Not like this."

"Got no other choice," Raleigh said, tasting blood in his smile as Slattern hovered over them and Scunner circled. "I'll tell Yancy you said hi."

"Striker, we can get to you!"

"No, Cherno, you have to finish the mission."

"Raleigh –"

_< <We cannot remote detonate. We can't deliver the payload. Cherno is nuclear. You have to take her into the Breach and set the self-destruct. Use one of the carcasses.>>_

"This is shit," Sasha spat, and Raleigh could picture her expression, cold and vicious. "Our reactor is nothing compared to what you carry."

"We can still get to you," Cheung said. "Hold on!"

_< <Rangers, you will do your goddamn duty and end this war. My father always said if you have a shot, you take it.>>_

"We _are_ taking it, Hansen." A rapid spate of Russian followed that, and Raleigh felt a surge of disbelief through the Drift.

_< <Goddamnit, Sasha, you can't do this! You have to go into the Breach and do it there!>>_

"We cannot, little Hansen," Aleksis said, his voice rumbling through the comm. "We have too much damage and our reactor is breached. Cherno, she will not make it into the Breach. So _we_ will clear the path for you."

"They're going to die," Raleigh whispered, closing his eyes for a brief second.

_< <We retrofitted them with escape pods. If the bloody wankers remember to use them, that is.>>_

Raleigh laughed, the sound weak and strained. "Fight or die, isn't that their motto?"

_< <Not this fucking time. I'll eject 'em myself if I have to.>>_

"Do vstrechi, druzya!"

There was no time to respond. Striker rocked forward as every drop of water was blown past them by the force of the nuclear explosion at their side. Raleigh barely had time to kneel and drive Striker's sting-blades into the ocean floor before the water came back with the speed and force of an avalanche.

_< <Ray? Raleigh? Fucking talk to me, goddamnit, Raleigh!>>_

"I'm here," Raleigh coughed. He pushed himself upright, feeling Striker drag around him with the damage done to her. "The Kaidanovskys?"

_< <I've got a pod signal, but no life signs. Dunno if the blast fried the circuits or if – Crimson is still online.>>_

"The kaiju?" Raleigh coughed again, a sharp, stabbing pain ripping through his chest. 

_< <Scunner is dead. No sign of Slattern.>>_

As if Chuck's words were magic, Slattern reared up and roared. Half the beast's face was burnt down to the bone and one leg was gone, but there was still plenty of it left to do damage. And the sight of it, so much like Knifehead after they'd thought it dead and gone, broke something inside Raleigh.

He would not lose another co-pilot. Not when they were just getting to know each other. Not when he'd just realized that he actually _liked_ Chuck.

With a primal scream, he launched them at the kaiju. Sting-blades dug deep into its sides with each punch, but Raleigh didn't stop. A jumble of Mandarin, broken English, and Chuck filled his ears, but Raleigh blocked it all out.

_< <Ray, stop! This isn't – goddamnit, we need to take it into the Breach.>>_

His breath coming rapidly, Raleigh reined his temper in and took a step back. One arm was still locked tight around Slattern, but an AKM had launched during the battle, blasting a hole right through the beast's chest.

_< <Talk to me.>>_

"I'm okay," Raleigh said, aware that he was shaking.

_< <The Weis are ejecting. It's up to us. We can do this. Just ride that bitch right into the Breach and detonate the payload.>>_

Raleigh nodded and didn't say a word. He just locked his arm tighter and stepped forward, letting the weight of the combined kaiju and Jaeger do the work for him. They tipped over the edge of the chasm and fell.

It was as easy as that, Raleigh thought. Anyone could fall.

The Breach flashed around them, blinding and painful, and when his vision cleared, Raleigh was surrounded by an alien world of colors that were bright and wrong. He smiled.

"Chuck," Raleigh said, already reaching for the switch to detonate the bomb, "let's finish this."

_< <With pleasure. It's been an honor, Ray.>>_

"For me, too."

Before he could flip the switch, the pilot motion rig lurched, pulling him back and away from the controls. As it tilted his body up into a prone position, Raleigh realized that Chuck Hansen was a better pilot than any of them had ever imagined – and a sneakier bastard than Raleigh had realized.

"Chuck, no," he screamed, fighting against the rig as it raised him towards the escape pod. "You don't leave your co-pilot, goddamnit!"

_< <You're not leaving me, Ray. I'm kicking your arse out and closing the Breach.>>_

"Please, don't fucking do this," Raleigh pleaded as he struggled harder. 

_< <I wish we'd had longer, but I've got shit timing. Look out for my dad for me, okay?>>_

The last thing Raleigh heard before the escape pod closed around him was Herc screaming Chuck's name through the comm. His fist slammed into the canopy above him in futile anger as the first tears slid down his face. There was a soft whoosh as the pod separated and began its journey to the ocean's surface.

Then the world exploded in white silence, the pod flipped end over end, and Raleigh blacked out.

*

The pain meds made Herc loopy as hell, but he could still feel the grief like a raw, open wound, clawing at him with each breath. He caught up with Stacker in the hallway just outside LOCCENT. "Where's Chuck?"

"You need to –"

"Don't fucking bullshit me, Stacker," Herc said, getting right up in the Marshal's face. "Where. Is. My. Son?"

"We don't know," Stacker admitted after a brief pause. The quietness of his words made something inside Herc freeze. "We have everyone manning stations, and Tendo hasn't stepped away from his monitors since the attack started. So far, Chuck isn't responding to anything they've done. Herc, you need to accept that he might –"

Herc reared back liked he'd been slapped. "Don't you say it," he growled, left hand clenching into a fist. "Don't you fucking say it!"

"Herc –"

"No," Herc said, shaking his head as he took several steps back, "just... No."

He turned on his heel and walked away.

 

"Sir, we can't –"

"I don't want to hear what you _can't_ do," Tendo snarled. He turned from the monitors to look around the room. "In fact, I don't want to hear 'I can't' or 'I don't' from anyone here. I don't want to hear _anything_ except 'we've found Chuck Hansen,' is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," the techs said, in near unison.

He spun back to his monitors, fingers already flying over the keyboard. "C'mon, kiddo," he muttered, eyes scanning the lines of code scrolling up his screen. "Talk to me."

 

Herc stepped into his quarters and glared at nothing in particular. Five hours since Striker had gone down in the battle and Chuck had gone silent. Three hours since the Jumphawks had returned bearing the Weis, the Kaidanovskys, and Raleigh. And there was still no word.

Tendo had kicked him out of LOCCENT ten minutes ago after getting in Herc's face and yelling at him (the irony of his actions mirroring Herc's with Stacker wasn't lost on Herc) because he was in the way and "just get the hell out of my LOCCENT, Hansen, and let me do my goddamn job so I can get your son back."

Fishing the pain pills out of his pocket, Herc tried to pry them open with one hand.

_< <Ranger Hansen to Medical, stat. This is an emergency. Ranger Hansen to Medical.>>_

Pills went flying, bouncing from metal surfaces with small pings as the bottle clattered to the floor. Herc hit the door at a run, his boots pounding out every step.

People leaped out of his path.

The door to Medical slammed into the wall and heads whipped around, eyes staring as Herc flew past without pausing. He halted only when he crashed into a mountain and Aleksis Kaidanovsky wrapped strong arms around him.

"Breathe, Hercules," he said, gentle even as he refused to release Herc. "You must breathe, tovarisch."

Herc's angry words were stopped in his throat when he caught sight of Chuck's doctors hurrying over to them.

"What –"

"We don't know, but his EKG just went haywire! We have massive amounts of brain activity and –"

"There hasn't been this much brain activity since he first went into the coma, and it started about twenty minutes ago –"

A monitor shrieked an alarm and Herc ripped free of the grip on him. He ignored the pain that swept through him at the move.

It didn't matter.

Nothing mattered except Chuck. Herc shoved past everyone to grasp Chuck's hand. "Come on, kid," he said in a hoarse voice, swallowing several times to get past the lump in his throat. "Come back to me now, okay? You're done. You did a good job and saved the world, Chuck, now come on, wake up for Dad, okay?"

Nothing happened. The monitor continued shrieking and the needle on the EKG snapped back and forth too rapidly to follow.

Then there was the tiniest twitch. Herc held his breath and prayed harder than he'd ever prayed in his life.

Five years, one month, and thirteen days after his disastrous first Drift, Chuck opened his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Herc asked in a faint voice as he felt his knees go weak. Brilliant green eyes shifted to his face and blinked several times.

"Dad? What... Where am I?"

"Bloody hell, kid, you're in medical," Herc said with a weak laugh. "Thought we'd lost you."

"Yeah, nah, 'm not going anywhere," Chuck said, his voice creaky and harsh, like a door with hinges too long without oil. "Why're you hovering like a bloody vulture? And where's Becket?"

Herc leaned against the bed and brought their joined hands to his mouth. He didn't have an answer, so he just laughed as tears slid down his cheeks.

*

Fourteen hours and thirty-two minutes later after Chuck woke up, the door to his hospital room opened.

Chuck looked up, eyes wide when Tendo wheeled Raleigh inside and let the door close behind him. Raleigh's right leg stuck out in front of him, braced on the wheelchair, and a cast covered him from his toes almost to his hip. His eyes were just this side of glassy, but he glared at Chuck.

"What the hell happened?"

Tendo laughed quietly and nodded to Chuck before leaving the room.

"Um, we won?"

Raleigh's face darkened. Before he could erupt, Chuck lifted his hand off the mattress a few inches. He was still too weak, even with the therapy they'd put his body through over the years, to do much on his own just yet. "I don't know," he admitted, holding Raleigh's gaze. "I put you in the escape pod and detonated the bomb. There was a flash of white and then nothing. Then I woke up back in my body with my dad crying on my hand like a sheila."

The glare faded slowly from Raleigh's face. With a grunt, he wheeled the chair closer to the bed, expression shifting to pained when he finally stopped.

"How're those ribs?" Chuck asked, flashing a quick grin when Raleigh looked at him. "Ray, I had a direct line to your vitals, remember. I know you broke 'em."

"When I get better, I'm kicking your ass," Raleigh snarled, but there was no heat in it. He reached out to rest his hand on the edge of the mattress. "That was an incredibly stupid and _brave_ thing you did."

"Yeah, nah, nothing to it," Chuck said with what he hoped was just the right amount of nonchalance. "Wouldn't have done you any good to kill yourself. Besides, you're too pretty to die. Even if you are still too skinny."

A wave of pink started at Raleigh's collar and swept up his face to his hairline. It was the most delightful thing Chuck had ever seen. And the self-conscious laugh that accompanied it made Chuck want to deliver another cheesy comment just to hear it again.

"You're not so bad yourself," Raleigh said. "To look at, I mean. Awful pale, though."

Chuck snorted out a laugh. "Yeah, being in a coma for five years makes it a little hard to get out in the sun."

"Heard they've got one of these for you," Raleigh said as he patted the arm of his wheelchair with the hand not resting on the bed. "And that we'll be doing physical therapy together once I get out of this cast."

"Reckon I'll still be back on my feet before you." Chuck reached out and covered Raleigh's hand with his, smiling when blue eyes flew up to meet his gaze. He squeezed a little, well aware of how weak his grip was, and something inside him eased when Raleigh's hand twisted and squeezed in response. "But they tell me you're not supposed to leave your co-pilot, so I guess I'll have to pace myself."

"Yeah, Hansen, you do that," Raleigh grinned, lining up their fingers perfectly so they laced together with no effort. "Us washed up Jaeger pilots have to stick together."

"Who're you calling washed up, has-been?"

Raleigh's answering laugh was bright and beautiful and this time, Chuck realized that falling wasn't going to be scary at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last lines in the scene between Raleigh and Hermann are from _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ by JK Rowling.


End file.
